Residential home mailboxes of the curbside type generally are either arranged for the convenience of an individual in a motor vehicle, and have a door which opens toward the front or street side, or else are arranged for the convenience of an individual on the sidewalk and have the door open toward the back or sidewalk side.
The natural result is that homeowners in exurban and rural areas often end up checking their own mailbox from their car. However, since the driver's wheel of a motor vehicle is on the left side of the car and since the car is legally required to remain facing so that the car is on the right side of the road, the driver is in fact still required to leave their vehicle to tend the mailbox. This is an obvious source of danger for the homeowner/driver. Note that some mail delivery vehicles (such as the Grumman® vans) are actually arranged with the driver's wheel on the right side so that the mail delivery person is seated on the curbside of the van and can use such mailboxes easily, but in general normal US passenger vehicles all have the driver's wheel on the side of the car nearest the center of the road.
Homeowners of curbside mailboxes experience other problems. One very common issue, especially in the age of constant on-line ordering, is the irritation surrounding return of packages which do not fit in the standard size of curbside mailbox. A purchaser who wishes to return a product via mail will have to go online, get a mailing label from the seller, and then notify the mail delivery person (via a note on the curbside box or whatever) that they have a box which needs to be returned.
It would be preferable to provide a residential home mailbox which works equally well for a person in a vehicle or a person standing on the sidewalk/boulevard.
It would further be preferable to provide a residential home mailbox which allows a mail delivery person to access packages within the box without need for a special key.
US Patent Application Publication No. 2008/0067227, published Mar. 20, 2008 in the name of Poss et al, teaches a package deposit enclosure for public use, not residential use. It lacks the ability to lift packages in either direction when opened, to scan barcodes for entry and modular renovation and improvement.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,261,966 issued Sep. 11, 2012 in the name of Cox et al, teaches a residential mailbox having a column style mailbox with various doors and supports but no indication of easy renovation and modular improvement.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,854,374 issued Dec. 21, 2010 in the name of Dudley, teaches at least multiple mail handling compartments and multiple doors for convenient access in different ways. However, it lacks the ability to lift packages from the bottom for easy handling from either side.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,987,452 issued Jan. 17, 2006 in the name of Yang teaches an “iBox”, an intelligent mailbox having communication capabilities but lacking basic mail handling functions, the ability to be easy accessed from either curbside or sidewalkside, does not cooperate with barcodes and so on.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,879,255 issued Apr. 12, 2005 in the name of Jezierski teaches a mailbox cam retrofit to a traditional mailbox, which transmits an image from the box, but which lacks security features for the homeowner's security (rather than just box security), and does not teach any usability with bar codes, lacks a scanner, lacks convenience features for the curbside/sidewalkside problem and so on.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,483,433 issued Nov. 19, 2002 in the name of Moskowitz et al teaches a computer system for determining if a package has been placed in a depository, but lacks any physical mail box structure.
It would be preferable to provide a mail box which has none of these limitations.
It would further be preferable to provide a mail box which can be easily semi-customized or renovated in a modular manner to a higher level of structural features and capabilities.